Winter Solstice
by LittleBlueBug
Summary: Indoor pool or no, swimming in the depths of winter is taxing on the immune system. Or; how our favourite water babies deal with Cold and Flu Season. Rated T for safety.
1. Haruka

**A/N: So yeah, I probably have enough stories on the go at once, and this one is a day late going up as it is, but we're going to overlook all that because I have discovered Free!, and that is far more exciting ^_^**

**So this story is for my friend and eternally patient beta, Laura, who will hopefully be getting a new fanfiction account soon, because she wanted winter Free! feels :3**

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><p><strong><span>Chapter 1: Haruka<span>**

"..." _I'm wet and cold already; going back in the pool isn't going to make much difference..._

He doesn't learn. He probably should have by now; this has happened every year since before he can remember, you'd think some sort of message would have been pounded into his thick skull by now.

But no, because Nanase Haruka will swim in the outdoor pool if he damn well pleases, regardless of the consequences.

And when those consequences make themselves known; with sneezing, shivers, and severe headaches, well...it's already too late. So he might as well just keep swimming.

Unfortunately, not every member of the Iwatobi Swim Club subscribes to Haruka's school of thought in this particular area. In fact, a lot of them – mainly Makoto, but with his kind eyes and soft smiles, his way of thinking is more contagious than this cold – seem to think that getting in the pool with a cold is actually a _bad idea_?!

(Haruka doesn't know where this vicious rumour about his precious water came from, but you can be sure that when he shakes off this damn cold, investigating the matter will be right at the top of his to-do list!)

But for now, he really does feel a little bit miserable. He's mad at Makoto, who took one look at him this morning before trying to make him stay home – which isn't why he's mad: he's annoyed because he does feel worse and if he listened to Makoto he could be sulking in the bath right now, but Makoto isn't even being smug about it, which is somehow infuriating.

Haruka missed his bath so much right now, and his floaty dolphin bath toy, and his bottles of shampoo lining the rim of the tub next to the tap, and the way the water is always hottest just under the point where the running water hits the surface, so hot it makes his toes curl and his skin tingle-

"Haru-chan?"

Suddenly aware of where he actually is – sitting in the school library, head down on the desk, drooling over his English textbook (he was falling behind...again) – and jerked his head up, meeting the worried green gaze watching him.

"You really should've stayed home today," Makoto surmised again. And _there_ it was: his ability to be right and infuriatingly not-smug simultaneously. If it didn't take so much effort to get annoyed, Haruka would probably be incensed by Makoto's mother-henning at this point. Instead, he pulls his sleeves down over his wrists to combat the cold draft and burrows his head back down again.

He misses swimming practice. For the first time in as long as he can remember; Haruka has not attended practice, and it vaguely surprises him that he doesn't care.

He trudges home, dragging his bag sulkily (by this point, he had a right to sulk!) until he reaches his house. By the time he gets there, he doesn't bother with the bath he'd been craving all day, or the sweet tea he'd been desperate for since lunchtime, he just dumps his bag by the door and crawls his way into his bed.

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><p><em>Knock knock knock!<em>

"Haruu~!" His head twitches slightly, both at the muffled sound of his name, and the phantom vibration of the knocking inside his skull (damn headache), but he quickly settles again, too tired to maintain the effort to keep himself up.

_Knock knock knock!_

"Haru-chan?" This time his name is clearer, and the voice is deeper: Makoto. It makes sense, he thinks vaguely fuzzily; Makoto knows where he keeps his emergency key, so he'd be able to let himself in. Which means the other, higher-pitched voice, must be-

"Aww poor Haru~!"

...Nagisa. Haruka groans, pulling the blanket over his head, until Makoto peels it back again. He growls at the cold air, reaching blindly for the covers, but they're gone. He doesn't mind that much; it wasn't doing much to keep him warm anyways.

"Nagisa, can you go put the kettle on to boil please?" He hears Makoto ask, and then there's a towel being dropped on the floor next to him.

"You go soak in the bath for a bit, and when you come out there'll be hot tea and broth and we can talk about which times of year are appropriate for outdoor swimming." Makoto tells him. Knowing that the taller boy has a system for 'encouraging' movement if he continues to lie stubbornly in bed – next on his list of ideas is normally a bucket of cold water – Haruka reluctantly drags himself into the bathroom.

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><p>His headache is loosened considerably by the hot steam in the bathroom, and his cold, aching body feels infinitely soothed by the warm bath itself. The tea and broth help too, warming him up from the outside, leaving nowhere for the cold to hide inside him, and the company that comes from having Nagisa and Makoto on either side while they watch some awful show on TV chases away the melancholy that always comes with colds and flus.<p>

He falls asleep with Nagisa burrowed into his side and Makoto's lengthy limbs wrapping around the two of them. It feels good, and Haruka muses that yeah, maybe Makoto was right about the benefits of staying at home.

(But he'd never tell him that, no need to feed his ego _too_ much.)

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><p><strong>So, opinions? Love it, hate it, should I stick with Pokemon?<strong>

**Your opinions are really important to me on this!**

**Bye for now,**

**-Bug xx**


	2. Rin

**A/N: Okay, so here is the second chapter! Thanks to C.A.M.E.O1 and Only for the review and the favourite, and thank you to my friend Laura (check her work out on here for a great SNK fic, she is Kuro skies) who proof-reads all my stuff and puts up with my general insanity. Here are some more wintry Free! feels even though we're nearing spring soon, and I have many more chapters I want to write so I'd best get a wiggle on! xD**

**Quick disclaimer, because I always forget: I don't own these characters (there would be a lot less swimming and a lot more shirtless sunbathing if I did)**

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><p><span><strong>Chapter 2<strong>: Rin

"I'm fine. I don't care." _I want a hug...please? I can't ask, I don't want people to use it against me..._

He feels awful from the moment he wakes up. Granted, it's four in the morning, and nobody feels their best at four in the morning, but he feels significantly _more_ awful than he usually does at this time.

But Rin is nothing if not dedicated to his training regimen – he can't let Haru get too far ahead, or he'll never catch up to him ever again, but he is most definitely _not_ frightened by that possibility – so he zips his jacket up as far as he can, tucks the ends of his sleeves into his gloves, and hopes that the biting cold wind from yesterday has passed over in the night.

It hasn't, and he spends most of his training time before school running from sheltered spot to sheltered spot, as the light, early-morning drizzle turns into a late-morning thunderstorm.

When he gets back to his room, he's cold, wet and _miserable_. He feels only slightly grateful (_neglected_) when he notices that Aiichiro has left for class without him. It's not like it matters, anyways, they have to split up at the main school building to get to their different registration rooms, it's not like he misses out on much by being late.

(He isn't going to admit that normally, listening to Aiichiro chatter his way through the sleepy cobwebs of the walk to registration is the highlight of his day, and that knowing there'll be someone to walk back with at the end of it all is sometimes the only thing that gets him through those taxing double Literature classes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.)

It takes so much more effort than normal to shrug on his book-bag and trudge over to the school building, knowing he's late, knowing he'll be told off for it, knowing he'll get the day off to a bad start, and not caring, because all he wants is to crawl back into bed and pretend this morning'd never happened.

But unfortunately for him; it's a Thursday, and old Shimazaki - his ancient, cantankerous Literature teacher - would probably hunt him down and beat him senseless with an old hardback anthology for even thinking about skipping his lessons.

(Not that Rin doesn't already feel like someone's had a go at his skull with a thick textbook from the _inside_...)

He survives the first half of the day – barely – making it to the end of History and Chemistry by trying to copy the notes of the kids next to him (if he looks up at the board, his head spins like he's just stepped off a fairground ride). He just scrapes through in Maths to the confusion of his teacher; his contribution to Miyano-sama's group discussion style of lesson is usually as close to enthusiastic as Rin finds himself able to get.

It's lunchtime when things grind to a standstill; Rin quickly realises the hot dining hall, full of chatter and strong smells, is probably the worst possible place for him to be right now, and retreats to the quiet of his next class; English.

He's nearly asleep, temples cradled between his hands when his English teacher arrives. Ten minutes later, he finds himself being marched into the nurse's office, then having to explain the...discrepancy on his contact information.

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><p>"What exactly compelled you to give them my phone number?" Makoto asked, helping Rin ease himself down onto the train seat. There was a big duffel bag full of his stuff, courtesy of Aiichiro, sitting between his feet, but he didn't dare look down to rifle through it. He was freezing cold, and assumed (hoped) that the sheer bulk of the bag was caused by the soft hoody he usually slept in, but his head was pounding, and if he opened his eyes or – God forbid – leaned forward to look for it, he'd likely end up head-first <em>in <em>the bag.

"Jus' needed the name 'f someone t' call. Thought of you first." He ground out. Talking _really_ made his head hurt. Makoto made a noise beside him.

"Are you cold?"

"No." Rin said, reflexively, before he could even think about it. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

(_I could've just asked... Makoto of all people wouldn't hold it against me, right?_)

Fortunately for Rin, Makoto had two younger siblings, and therefore was pretty well-versed in Bullshit Talk. He heard a shuffling sound, and then something warm wrapped around him. Curling his hands in the fabric, it felt slightly smooth under his fingertips, and made a rustling noise when he rubbed it between two fingers: Makoto's swimming jacket.

"'R you missin' practice?" He slurred, suddenly tired now he was warming up. He still felt shivery, but now his body heat was being contained, it was easier to keep the chills at bay.

"Practice was called off today; we were all too worried about you." Makoto explained, "Haru-chan, Nagisa and your sister are all waiting back at Haru-chan's house for us."

"Don't feel like bein' 'nterrogat'd..."

"I've told them you aren't up to their questions; you're coming home to rest and get better, and Haruka's house is the best place for you to do that. Nagisa is too loud, I have my brother and sister, and Kou would probably never let you leave if she got you home." Rin had to laugh at the last one, groaning as the vibration set off his headache, and then coughing as the groaning lit a burning fire in the centre of his chest. Next thing he knew, Makoto was leaning him forwards slightly, rubbing circles on his chest, and the pressure quickly made breathing easier. Exhausted from the longest coughing fit he'd suffered thus far, Rin lay back on the seat, leaning heavily on Makoto's shoulder.

"Just rest, Rin-chan, we'll be home soon." Makoto promised, wrapping an arm around Rin (_so warm, so comforting, I want this so badly..._) and settling down for the rest of the trip.

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><p>"What do you think's wrong with him?" Nagisa asked, cupping his mug of tea and taking a tiny sip.<p>

"It must be serious if they're sending him off the school premises." Gou reasoned, inhaling the steam from her own drink.

"Makoto said it looked like the flu to him." Haruka stated, drinking nearly all of his tea in one long pull.

"How can you do that?! I just poured it out of the pot two minutes ago?" Gou shrieked.

"Haru-chan has a temperature-proof digestive system." Nagisa replied, unperturbed by the boy across from him drinking his scolding hot tea as if it were barely room temperature. Before Gou could reply – or confiscate the teapot from Haruka, who was after second helpings already – there was a muffled knock at the door.

Leaving Haruka to boil his internal organs, Gou ran to open the door.

"Onii-chan!" She gasped.

"He's alright Gou-chan," Makoto explained, shifting the weight of the sleeping teenager in his arms. "He fell asleep on the train. Can you take his bag for me please?"

"You carried him all the way from the train station?" Nagisa asked, coming up behind Gou and taking the bag from her.

"I could hardly expect him to walk in his condition," Makoto sighed, laying Rin out on the couch. "His temperature's been increasing since we caught the train. I think he overexerted himself trying to force his way through his lessons, and now he's got no energy left to fight this cold."

"Poor onii-chan," Gou sighed, leaning up to brush her brother's fringe back from his face, noticing the temperature of his skin, "He really is warm..."

"He'll be okay," Makoto said, "but for now we're gonna look after him."

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><p>Rin wakes up wrapped in the warmth of three bodies; Nagisa spooning his legs, Gou curled up against his chest, and Makoto cradling his head in his lap. There's a blanket wrapped around him, some inane show on TV, and a bottle of water suddenly dangling just in front of his nose. He takes it; relishing in the coolness of the condensing water on the plastic against his feverish skin, as Haruka plonks himself down gracelessly in front of the sofa with a bowl of amusing mackerel-shaped biscuits.<p>

"You never learn." He says simply, eyes glued to the screen, munching quietly. Rin pauses from desperately emptying the water bottle.

"You're one to talk," He snorted, lying back down to quell his roiling stomach, "I heard about the pool thing."

"That's not what I meant. You know it." Haruka replies shortly. "You can't do everything on your own. You don't need to do everything on your own." He pauses, licks his fingers, then continues. "Learn to lean on other people; that's what we're here for, anyways."

Rin lets out a sigh through his nose.

"Maybe." He replies after a while, stealing a handful of Haruka's fishy nibbles.

"Don't blame me if those make you sick; they taste awful."

"Wait..._why are you_ _eating them then_?!"

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><p><strong>I like this one, personally, although that might be because I'm evil and I enjoy heaping the hurt on characters, but there are snuggles too, I'm not totally heartless, right? xD And I can't remember if Haruka's house has a sofa or a tv or whatever, but just go with it please, I spent hours trying to find out and I couldn't come up with an answer, which tells you a little bit about how obsessive my research is for all my fics, and why it takes me so damn long.<strong>

**So...um, yeah, if anyone has any opinions, or they simply have a burning desire for me to inflict illness on a character of their choice, then let me know. **

**(Quick hint: I have a memory like a sieve. Reviews and favourites/follows remind me that I actually have stories to update!)**

**I will try to update my other stories, but everything will go on a (very temporary!) hiatus later in the month for my mock exams to reduce distractions, although I should be back to updating (hopefully regularly!) by February.**

**Bye for now, and a Happy Holidays/New Year to you guys!**

**-Bug xxx**

**P.S. Bonus points for anyone who can tell me where the names of Rin's teachers come from. ****(Hint: I spend _a lot_ of time browsing the Wikia pages...)**


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